Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

Avigere, the results achieved

A WebGis at the service of Sicilian wine companies. That is, a portal (www.webgisavigere.it) which can be accessed via a special password that provides producers with fundamental information to implement precision viticulture. It is the tangible result of the research activity carried out by the AVIGERE project, a project financed through Measure 124 of the Sicily RDP 2007/2013, which ends after more than two years of studies.

The optimization of vineyard management in terms of energy saving and sustainability was the driving objective of the project which involved agronomists, engineers, computer scientists and wine producers in teamwork. The work was in fact promoted by the Regional Institute of Wine and Oil of Sicily in collaboration with the Departments of Engineering and Agriculture of the University of Palermo and the participation of the Donnafugata, Settesoli, Tasca d'Almerita and Rapitalà wineries. “An opportunity for growth for Sicilian viticulture. – commented the general director of IRVOS, Lucio Monte during the final conference which took place at Palazzo Steri in Palermo – The knowledge acquired will be useful in the next actions that we as an organization want to take in the strategic field of sustainability”.

Precision viticulture aims to maximize the efficiency of entrepreneurial choices in the management of wine-growing properties. The quality of the wine is closely linked to the quality of the grapes, the sustainability of the agronomic practices and the valorisation of the terroirs. “It is a way to make more rational viticulture possible, strongly based on the sustainability of the supply chain and on the valorisation of individual terroirs”, he adds Happy Capraro, scientific director of AVIGERE. “In fact, it allows us to collect all the information necessary for agronomists and oenologists to evaluate the state of the vineyards, to develop a picture of the critical issues present, to control the ripening processes and therefore to plan the harvest and the oenological destination of the grapes depending on their origin. ”. The acquisition of data from "near" and from "far" (proximal and remote sensing) through the use of specific sensors and the comparison with the agronomic data collected in the field, has thus made it possible to produce thematic maps of the "guide" vineyards ” of Nero d'Avola, Catarratto, Grillo and Grecanico made available to the companies participating in the project. The installation of a WSN (Wireless sensor network) in the vineyards has promoted the knowledge of the most important weather data (i.e. temperature, humidity, rain) allowing a reduction in the number of treatments and doses per hectare, also improving the efficiency of the irrigation with targeted interventions. All the information acquired, from WSN data to digital cartography, from thematic maps to vineyard management application models, form the SIT (Territorial Information System) which the company's technicians, specially trained, are able to use for management purposes. specific to the vineyards. “Technological platforms like AVIGERE,” he says Dario Cartabellotta, Regional Councilor for Agriculture – they promote aggregation processes by encouraging the creation of networks between companies and research structures and therefore strengthen competitiveness by encouraging the introduction of innovative mechanisms”.